HOLYOKE - City officials say they believe more needs to done to monitor vacant buildings like the former mill building destroyed last week by a massive fire.

"You need to be able to have something to take these landlords to court," City Councilor Patricia C. Devine said today.

Devine recently submitted an order to the council requesting "that regulations governing blighted and vacant buildings be created through the Ordinance Committee," according to a written copy of the order. The order was received on Tuesday by the City Council and forwarded to the council's Ordinance Committee.

Devine said she was contacted by Board of Health Director Daniel Bresnahan long before last week's fire, which was intentionally set and destroyed the former Parsons Paper Co. mill on June 9. The same vacant building was also the source of a legal battle involving the city, which has been attempting for years to recover $1.8 million in taxes, fees, liens, and interest, according to the city treasurer's office.

But Devine noted today that the proposed ordinance would hopefully prevent similar disasters in the future.

Mayor Michael J. Sullivan also spoke briefly last week at a downtown revitalization meeting about the proposed ordinance aimed at making owners of abandoned buildings more accountable. Sullivan could not be reached today for more comments on the proposed ordinance.

The city has tried a variety of tactics to eliminate abandoned and vacant buildings in the city.

Last year, the city used the courts to force one owner to make improvements to an abandoned building. The legal battled waged in the Western Division Housing Court was over a house at 1215 Dwight St.

The Dwight Street property owned by the heirs of Paul M. Rudzik has been vacant for more than three years, Bresnahan said last year.

"It's a hazard," he said Dec. 16.

The court agreed. Judge Dina Fein declared the house "an abandoned and unsecured multi-family dwelling which fails to meet the minimum standards of decency for human habitation," according to court documents dated Nov. 27.

According to the terms of the court case, the city chose a person to serve as the receiver of the property and repair it. The receiver can then rent the house and keep any revenue collected.